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June 16, 2014

Battle of the Beasts Finale - The Baddest Beast in the Land!

It All Comes Down...

To this! We lined up four of the greatest beasts in the land, assembled our ninja drinking team, tasted them blind until our peat receptors were fried beyond belief, and here at long last are the results. We are ready to officially declare the winner of Battle of the Beasts!

Ok so without further ado...

SmokyBeast Ninja Guest Judge #1

Benny Wolowitz

Tis' Which The Smokiest of the Beasts?

#1 - Octomore
#2 - Kilchoman
#3 - Supernova
#4 - Lagavulin

Choose Your Favorite Beast!

#1 - Octomore
#2 - Supernova
#3 - Lagavulin
#4 - Kilchoman

Aye, so Doctor Wolowitz truly is a lover of the smoke! He picked out the highest ppm and declared it his favorite. Octomore is truly a badass beast. Crickey!

SmokyBeast Ninja Guest Judge #2

Bram Hoogendijk

Tis' Which The Smokiest of the Beasts?

#1 - Supernova
#2 - Kilchoman
#3 - Octomore
#4 - Lagavulin

Choose Your Favorite Beast!

#1 - Kilchoman
#2 - Lagavulin
#3 - Octomore
#4 - Supernova

And our first upset comes from the Dutchman! Bram ranked the two smoke-bombs his least favorite, and found the Octomore less smoky than the Kilchoman. Interesting how ppm doesn't always equate exactly to the sensation of smokiness. And very interesting that the young upstart Kilchoman trumped the very sought-after Supernova!

SmokyBeast Ninja Guest Judge #3Joshua Gershon Feldman

Tis' Which The Smokiest of the Beasts?

#1 - Octomore
#2 - Supernova
#3 - Kilchoman
#4 - Lagavulin

Choose Your Favorite Beast!

#1 - Kilchoman
#2 - Octomore
#3 - Supernova
#4 - Lagavulin

Aha! Well Josh doesn't claim the title Director of SmokyBeast Special Operations for nothing. He picks the ppm straight down the line. But then, what's this??? Kilchoman strikes #1 favorite again! Even from a veteran bog-sniffer like Josh, the rookie takes the gold!

Judge #4

Mrs. SmokyBeast

Tis' Which The Smokiest of the Beasts?

#1 - Supernova
#2 - Octomore
#3 - Kilchoman
#4 - Lagavulin

Choose Your Favorite Beast!

#1 - Supernova
#2 - Lagavulin
#3 - Octomore
#4 - Kilchoman

Let it be said that wifey has never sat down to a tasting and failed to pick the most expensive are rare whiskey as her favorite. (Yes, it's the same with jewelry). So it's no surprise that she sniffed out Supernova as the #1. It's also no surprise that Lagavulin was #2, since Lag 16 was her first malt love!

And The Winner Is...

Tis' The Smokiest!!!

D'oh! Who's idea was it to have four judges? Bad hubby. We have a tie. Two votes for Octomore and two votes for Supernova as the smokiest beast in the land. Who woulda thunk it??? Well sorry folks we'll just have to repeat the uber-scientific blind study next year. For now, hubby's vote breaks the tie in favor of the Octomore. In terms of pure smokiness, it's totally over the top.

The Smokiest of the Beasts!

Tis' The Tastiest of the Beasts!!!

Well the dark horse took the win with two votes! It's not that surprising, we've been shouting from the rooftops how delicious Kilchoman is, particularly the cask strength sherry barrels (please guys, more single barrel sherry casks!!!). But it is notable that two of our judges picked this very special Kilchoman barrel over the likes of Supernova, Lagavulin, and Octomore. Perhaps being last in this competition was an advantage. Once our palates were thoroughly destroyed by the monsters, this one came out with a delicacy that hit the palate like a blessing. But it's not just the order, since we had enough in the ample pours of this tasting to go back through and compare each one head to head. No the Kilchoman would be something special no matter where it sat in the lineup.

The Tastiest of the Beasts!!

Well that's all she wrote. The Battle of the Beasts is done. But we have a feeling that this may not be the final battle. We'll save some of our legendary beasts and wait for another fire-breathing inspiration to strike. Stay tuned!